Son of Boston police captain arrested over suspected terrorist plot

The estranged son of a Boston police captain was arrested on gun charges by the FBI after he was caught in a sting operation for trying to buy two pistols and two rifles from a confidential informant.

As described in court papers unsealed on Monday, Alexander
Ciccolo, 23, allegedly told a cooperating witness in recorded
conversations in June that he planned to commit acts inspired by
Islamic State.

Specifically, Ciccolo, also known as Abu Ali al-Amriki, talked
about killing civilians, police officers and members of the US
military, but later said that he wanted to attack a state
university outside Massachusetts because more people would be
there. The attack would include the executions of students,
broadcast live over the internet, he told the FBI informant.

Ciccolo, who recently converted to Islam, said that if a student
was a Muslim, "he would be permitted to help, sit tight or
leave."

Officials said that during a search of the suspect's apartment
they found several partially constructed Molotov cocktails, two
machetes and a long curbed knife. ABC News also
reported that officials found "possible bomb-making
equipment including a pressure cooker, a variety of chemicals, an
alarm clock, along with attack papers and jihad paperwork."

Ciccolo's father, police Captain Robert Ciccolo, a 27-year
veteran of the Boston police force, had alerted counter-terrorism
authorities about a year ago that his son was beginning to act
erratically, had a long history of mental illness, and had
expressed a desire to go overseas and fight for Islamic State. He
said he had received texts from him in which he said that America
was "Satan" and Americans were disgusting, according to the Associated Press.

Police Captain Ciccolo was on duty during the Boston Marathon
bombing and was a first responder; his son told the informant
that the bombing gave him the idea of using a pressure cooker.

"While we are saddened and disappointed to learn of our son's
intentions, we are grateful that authorities were able to prevent
any loss or harm to others,” the Ciccolo family said in a
statement. They asked that the media respect their grief and
privacy.

Arraigned last Monday on gun charges,
Alexander Ciccolo is scheduled to appear in federal court in
Springfield on Tuesday for a bail hearing.

His arrest is the latest in a widespread FBI counter-terrorism
operation against alleged Islamic State-inspired attacks meant to
take place in America. The FBI and Department of Homeland
Security had warned of a heightened terror threat tied to July 4.
The agency's director, James Comey, said last week that the FBI
has arrested more than 10 people, actions which he believes
stopped acts of violence in the month before the holiday.